Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1928-10)

October, 1928 The Phonograph Monthly Review 31 Part 4. Hard Times Come Again No Adore, Angelina Baker, Gentle Annie, Old Dog Tray, Some polks Like to Sigh. Part 5. Old Black Joe. Part 6. My Old Kentucky Home. Part 7. Massa s in de Cold Cold Ground. Part 8. Old Folks at Home. As a major recorded representation of Foster and American Music the set is to be welcomed, but as far as the actual versions go, it is of very slight interest to cultured music lovers. As noted, the performances are all of the broadcast hour, movie presentation type, and while Shilkret holds himself somewhat in check during the first two disks, in the last two he lets himself go with every conceivable variety of violin and flute obbligato, bird twitterings, melodramatic recitations, and what not. All of which are no doubt edifying to and appreciated by an average movie audience. Ihe playing itself is splendid of course, as is the recording, and the vocalists—particularly the soloists—deserve praise. The performances are most successful in the livelier pieces, Ring de Banjo, Oh! Lemuel!, and De Camptown Races, and in Old Folks at Home until the sincerity of the piece is destroyed by a spoken passage. The banjo parts are ex- cellent throughout (I wished there were more), and the harmonica solo in Lou’siana Belle is a felicitous touch. My favorite among the Foster songs, Oh! Susanna (to my mind one of finest and most characteristic pieces of American music) was given but scant attention, a real pity, especially as Shilkret is most happy in his arrange- ments and performances of music of this character. This set is undoubtedly headed for immense popularity and probably will be of value to the musically semi- illiterate in familiarizing them with Foster’s melodies in an idiom which they can easily understand. But a sincere and unadultered exposition of these undying songs is still needed. We shall have it someday, and in the mean- time there is no danger of the songs losing their freshness or moving emotional force. O.C.O. Chamber Music National Gramophonic Society 105-8 (4 D12s) Brahms: String Sextet in G, Op. 36, played by the Spencer Dyke String Quartet assisted by James Lockyer and Edward Robinson. The phonograph has done well by Brahms of late and this present sextet is a welcome addition to Brahms litera- ture, especially inasmuch as we might have had to wait some seasons before it would be forthcoming from one of the recording companies. It is a good choice for the N. G. S. and the Spencer Dyke Quartet, properly aug- mented, do it full justice. The recording is excellent and the performance thoroughly competent, pleasantly free from any suggestion of the pedantic. The composition is undeniably “scholarly” and admirably so, but it is also rich with red-blooded life. The players do well to take it seriously without undue seriousness; accurately without stilted meticulousness. It provides sound musical nourish- ment and while some phonographic epicures may think at first it is not highly seasoned ei*ough, if they give it a trial they will never suffer musical indigestion. A work of sound and deep merit of which the sincere music lover will never tire, finding it of ever greater spiritual sustenance long after he has lost interest in other disks of flashier and less surely founded appeal. (There is an excellent analysis of the composition on page 115 of “The Gramophone” for August, 1928. I add my recommendation to P. L.’s that a miniature score be, used to derive the greatest pleasure and value from the records.) Victor Musical Masterpiece Set M-34 (5 D12s, Alb., $7.50) Schubert: Quartet in D minor (“Death and the Maiden”), played by the Budapest String Quartet (Hauser, Roisman, Ipolyiy and Son). (On the tenth side the Budapest Quartet plays the Canzonetta from Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E flat Op. 12.) Nearly two years ago Columbia issued a recording of this work by the London String Quartet which was acclaimed as one o*f the finest achievements in quartet recording up to that time. Two years of progress and new developments in the recording laboratory give the new set a decided mechanical advantage. It does not possess the stereo- phonic realism of the latest N. G. S. Ravel and Malipiero quartets; it is somewhat more subdued in quality, without however falling short of the highest standards of clarity and freedom from distortion. The Budapest four are very earnest and capable music- ians. Their performance is irreproachable, except perhaps on the grounds of over-soberness, if indeed that is any fault in these days when the emotional pendulum swings so frequently in the other direction. The appeal of the work is not immediate nor overwhelming; one listens at- tentively for some time before the sheer competence of this very serious organization gradually begins to evoke first respect and then admiration and liking. I particularly like the way they take the second movement, the variations on the theme of Der Tod und Das Madchen, from which the quartet is named. Their ensemble is very discreetly bal- anced, with no individual striving for the slightest prom- inence. While the tone of the ensemble is hardly as warm or as full as that of the Leners, for instance, it has con- siderable powers of breath and color, and in the Scherzo and Finale, even of vividness and grace. This quartet is Schubert’s best known essay in this form and it will always remain one of his favorite compositions. I sigh a little for a recording with perhaps a shade less unbending seriousness and avoidance of geniality, but this set is so meritous in every other respect that I should be unappreciative indeed if I did not give it the heartiest en- dorsement. A worthy tribute to the composer and to the artists, as well as an addition to the Victor Masterpiece Series that fully upholds the standard set by earlier chamber music recordings. (I should add that though the Columbia version is in eight instead of nine record sides, it is also complete, ex- cept for repeats. The Mendelssohn piece on the odd side of the new set is a neatly turned musical trifle of no particular interest except in the dextrous way the Budapest Quartet plays it.) Columbia Masterworks Set 91 (4 D12s, Alb., $6.00) Schu- bert: Trio in B flat, Op. 99, played by Myra Hess (piano), Yelly D’Aranyi (violin), and Felix Salmond (’cello). Columbia has mustered a notable ensemble to rival the famous Casals-Cortot-Thibaud combination, whose Victor recording of this same Trio is one of the towering moun- tain peaks of phonographic literature. To make another recording of this work after it had been done so mag- nificently is in itself demonstrative of no small courage. And their courage is not unrewarded, for the Hess-D’Aranyi- Salmond group does better even than we should expect. Their endeavor is a magnificent one: they submerge them- selves totally in the music, they pool their several abili- ties into an ensemble of splendid evenness and balance, and they are ably supported by the recording director. And it is not the artists or the company that is to blame that the Casals-Cortot-Thibaud version is still unsurpassed and unequalled. I observe with interest that a British colleague points out the difference between the two versions as lying in Casals’ being the authoratative spirit in one, while in the other the ensemble is perfectly balanced with no musical predominance. I cannot share his view, although I un- reservedly agree that Casals gives the Victor set its un- usual significance, but only because we listen more intently to his part, knowing beforehand what perfection of detail he will give us. For all its “endless variety of color,” his is by no means predominate, but gauged accurately to blend evenly with the others. It is the Columbia set which falls a little behind on this count, for D’Aranyi’s part is hardly as well poised to the others as that of Thibaud is in his en- semble. And while I yield to none in my admiration of Myra Hess, and while I ill conceal my dissatisfaction with many of Cortot’s solo performances, in ensemble I have to admit him unapproachable, for all the exquisite artistry which Miss Hess lavishes on her part, here as always. But it is idle and impertinent to compare two such sets as these. Both are on the highest plane of musicianship, and the infinitesimal faults which we may profess to see on careful examination with a critical stethoscope would pass for virtues on the first water in the performances of lesser artists! The slight differences in the interpretations are differences of taste and temperament, in choosing be- tween the two versions these will naturally influence the